Chesapeake center joins Riverside and UVA in radiosurgery partnership

More residents of Hampton Roads will have access to high-tech treatments for cancer thanks to an agreement announced Thursday between the Riverside and University of Virginia Radiosurgery Center in Newport News and Chesapeake Regional Medical Center.

The original alliance between Riverside Health System and the University of Virginia brought stereotactic surgery with the Gamma Knife (in June 2006) and Synergy S (in May 2007) to the Peninsula; it drew on the expertise of pioneering practitioners from the University of Virginia, where the Gamma Knife was first used in 1989. Stereotactic surgery, which uses a three-dimensional coordinant system to precisely deliver radiation, allows patients to avoid surgical incisions and long hospital stays and reduces recovery time. In addition to its use in brain cancer treatment, the Gamma Knife is also used for certain other brain diseases.

There are only two other locations with Gamma Knife technology in the state, in Richmond and Charlottesville. Gamma Knife "surgery" eliminates any cutting, and instead uses 201 highly focused radioactive beams, or gamma rays, to target otherwise inoperable brain tumors. Treatment is typically given in a single session on an outpatient basis, or during a one-day hospital stay. The Synergy S combines a linear accelerator with a specialized, real-time imaging system to target tumors in other areas of the body, such as the liver, spine, lungs and pancreas. It is also minimally invasive, with no surgical cutting involved.

Eighteen months ago, when Chesapeake Regional applied for a Certificate of Public Need to offer similar services at its cancer center, it was denied. That's when Riverside approached the center and negotiations for a three-party agreement with the University of Virginia ensued, according to Wynn L. Dixon, Jr., Chesapeake Regional's president and CEO. "It has taken us a little bit longer than we'd hoped," said Bill Downey, president and CEO of Riverside.

At the announcement, Bob Oman, vice-chair of the Chesapeake hospital's board, said "It's gratifying to know we can get the same treatments as at the nation's top teaching hospitals." The hospital's cancer center, which opened in 1995, is named for his father, Sidney M. Oman, former mayor of Chesapeake, who had to seek treatment elsewhere when he received a cancer diagnosis.

Under the agreement, Chesapeake patients will initially receive treatment in Newport News. "Our goal is that when we're consistently sending between 70 and 100 patients a year to them, then we'll be able to bring the technology here," says Barbara Bellido, Chesapeake's director of oncology.

To date, Riverside has treated 731 patients with the Gamma Knife and 969 with the Synergy S. By comparison, in its 21/2 decades of practice, the University of Virginia has treated more than 8,000 Gamma Knife patients from around the world. U.Va. neurosurgeon Jason Sheehan is the co-medical director of the partnership, now renamed the Chesapeake Regional, Riverside and University of Virginia Radiosurgery Center.